


Andy didn't have a crush on April (until he did)

by Parks and Fluff (GamblingDementor)



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 22:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 7,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4037695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamblingDementor/pseuds/Parks%20and%20Fluff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love takes time and love takes work. The story of how Andy fell in love with April. One chapter = one episode, from Hunting Trip to Freddy Spaghetti.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hunting Trip

April is sitting at her desk doodling on a pad by the time Andy comes back to the office after washing his neck quite thoroughly for her to give him hickeys as they planned. He took a shower the day before, so it should be just fine, but still, he doesn't want anyone sucking on his neck if it's too sweaty (which it tends to be if he thinks about Ann too much, because it makes him sad).

 

"Hey!"

 

"Oh, erm, hey," she looks up.

 

"You ready?"

 

She nods with a faint smile on her lips. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she looks shy. But that's stupid, this whole thing was her idea, there is no way she would be shy. She's done this before with her boyfriend's boyfriend, she said, so it isn't weird at all.

 

"So, how do we do this?"

 

She bites her lip, looking up for a second, thinking it over.

 

"How about you sit in the chair, I sit on your lap?"

 

"Really? That's how you want to do it?"

 

"Yeah!" she says, too fast, and Andy thinks she sounds a little bit nervous after all, "I mean, you're so tall and all, it's the easiest way? I think?"

 

"Great, yeah, I mean, er… You sure you wanna do this?"

 

"Totally!"

 

She smiles and he forgets that he's even been nervous about this himself, and she stands up to let him sit.

 

"Let's do this then!" he says and grins.

 

She sits across his lap rather awkwardly, but then again, how often does she sit on other people's lap to suck on their neck? He doesn't want to assume, but it can't be  _that_  often. She feels light and tiny, lighter than Ann ever did, and Andy finds himself wondering if  _Ann_  often sits on Mark's lap and suddenly he can't wait for April to do this so Ann will get super jealous.

 

"Okay, you ready?" she asks, her hands on his torso for support.

 

"Yeah, go ahead and suck it all up!" He gives her the thumbs up.

 

She snorts, and her eyes linger on him for half a second before diving in. Her mouth on his neck reminds him of Ann, although she never really gave him hickeys (he was the one to give her lovebites, and she would scold him and try to hide them for work... Good ol' days), and he closes his eyes and pretends his A-Cakes is with him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback.


	2. Tom's Divorce

April doesn't completely hate Tom, she likes drinking (although that fell flat rather quickly considering that Leslie, control freak as ever, made sure she only had soft drinks) and she really  _really_  likes Andy, so this let's-cheer-up-Tom-after-his-divorce dinner is going pretty smooth for her so far.

 

Especially the part where she hangs out with Andy.

 

She  _had to_  hang out with him at this dinner. It's not like she has any friend at City Hall except him and Tom, and Tom is busy, so she  _had_  to be around Andy tonight. Because they're  _friends_ , that's why. And even then, they're not that close, not yet, they only hang out from time to time, really. Or pretty often, actually. In fact, every day. She just meets him at the shoeshine stand every chance she gets. It's not like it's  _weird_  or anything, it's just that he's pretty much the only other kinda young person out there.

 

And he's funny. And kind. And super chill. And tall, so big and tall, and a bit chubby, which she never even knew she liked. Okay, she  _might_  find him kind of hot. But above all, he makes her laugh and April  _never_  laughs so that counts for something. She  _really_  likes him.

 

All night, he tried to win these crazy games with Mark to get Ann back. At some point she was about to suggest that both guys make out or something, to get the tension off, or that they compare dicks, but then she threw another timely look at Andy (just when he was leaning over the table and she got the best view from behind) and her mind got a little bit lost in her thoughts about him and it all became too inappropriate to even mention. She kind of forgot how to speak for a moment, too. So the rest of the night, she sits and watches.

 

When Leslie sends her back home, she realizes that she's just spent a whole night  _happy_ , though a bit bored, around other people, and she asks herself when she became so sociable. Then she remembers Andy's goofy smile when she joined them by the pool table and she understands that maybe she might possibly have a little crush on him, perhaps. Admitting that feels like lifting a weight off her shoulders, until she remembers that Andy just spent the whole time trying to win back another woman. Uh oh.


	3. Christmas Scandal

 

Andy has  _never_  received a present like that. As soon as he saw it, he just got the biggest grin ever and it never left and he's even afraid of wearing it for fear of staining or tearing it. It needs a special occasion, he tells himself, you can't just wear a Reggie Wayne jersey for no reason. He can't see himself wearing it for any other occasion than maybe his wedding or something: it's that perfect of a jersey.

He can't believe April got him the perfect gift! And to think he didn't even really help her find a present for her boyfriend. He didn't even give her a present. Or anyone, really. Last year and the year before that, Ann was the one who bought presents and then said it was from them both. That was easy. This year, he has no money, and a few friends that he never even gave presents to. And no idea what to actually give to the girl who is becoming his best friend around City Hall.What can compare to the best present that he could ever have imagined? What is worth as much as the jersey of the best player in the universe? And, more importantly, what can he afford to give that he knows April likes? He realizes he doesn't know that much about April. But he doesn't have time to figure that out right now, Christmas is coming far too soon and he can't just know everything about her from one day to the next.

 

In the end, he leaves a note on her desk that says "Coupon for ten million shoeshines" because he has noticed that she tends to come to his stand quite often, so that means she must like shoeshines, right? But he promises himself to know her well enough by next year to give her the best present she's ever received. 


	4. The Set Up

This is all stupid. April knows it's stupid and not worth it and risky, and she hates herself for still feeling like this. But she does.

 

When she told Andy she was looking forward to the end of her internship, she was hoping he would say it's stupid, say he would miss her if she stopped coming to work here, maybe ask her to stay, or even  _beg_  her. No, that's stupid. He would never do that. That's what  _she_  would do if he told her he quit. But Andy isn't like her.

 

Andy doesn't have a crush on her.

 

She has no idea where these feelings all came from. It's not that she has a type, not really, but all the guys she's been with in the past so far were scrawny sarcastic jerks, like Derek, and Andy is the exact opposite of that. She still can't believe she fell for him, but she did, hard, like you'd fall off a cliff, and it's beginning to be a real problem.

 

She has no idea what she's supposed to do. Probably this will end in heartbreak and anger, probably Ann will take him back and April will be all sad and alone... except she's not alone. She has a boyfriend. But just the thought of Derek makes her exasperated when she compares him to Andy and his big smiles and his laugh and his songs and she wants to be with him, she really does, but she can't, she won't, and  _why is this happening_?

 

Her internship is soon over. She'll probably never see Andy again and she doesn't know what to think about it. Maybe it's for the best. He probably won't miss her. Actually, she's quite sure he won't miss her: he didn't even say a thing when she said she couldn't wait her internship was over. Wasn't she being obvious enough? Couldn't he see she wanted him to react in some way?

 

But she'll miss him. She doesn't want to leave City Hall, even though she hates the job. She wants to stay for the giant goofball who makes her smile and not even hate herself for it, who makes her laugh. She wants to spend all her lunch breaks with him forever and listen to him hum songs and joke around with his clients. She wants to mess with Jerry and snort at what Leslie says with him. She doesn't want to leave it all behind forever.

 

These thoughts are stupid. This whole thing is. There is no good possible outcome, but she just knows that she can't leave City Hall, she can't leave this place and never see him again. She's going to find a way to stay here in some way, and then she'll be a little bit more heartbroken every day she knows he doesn't like her back. It's not worth it, yet it is if she gets to see Andy's smile every day.


	5. Leslie's House

Andy doesn't like being upset, but he is. He really thought April would back him up there about Justin. No one ever backs him up about Justin. 

 

He doesn't like the way all of this feels. First of all, he doesn't like Justin. He hates that everyone seem to find him great and awesome and interesting. And he kinda felt that April found  _him_  great and awesome and interesting before, but now, he's not so sure. Can you like two people at once? Is April still his friend if she finds the guy he hates pretty awesome? That's ridiculous, of course you can. Andy himself likes both Ann and April a lot, and most other people as well, actually. He guesses he probably just feels confused and sad because he never expected April, of all people, to like someone cool and popular like Justin.

 

As the night goes on, he kind of forgets about it, considering Leslie is throwing the best dinner party he's ever been to. Then again, he hasn't been to many dinner parties before. He's pretty much a stay at home kind of guy. He's not sure if fencing and bellydancing are usually part of it (his guess is they're not). Leslie really is super awesome at everything she organizes. At the end of the night, she gives him a whole forty dollars, and it's the first time he's had this much money in weeks (last time was that day the whole City Council asked for a shoeshine, just one after the other, which made Andy kind of wish he'd put on his nice shirt, but he still charged them like twelve bucks).

 

It's not until the next day when he sees April come into work through the courtyard that he remembers that she kind of hurt his feelings the night before. She doesn't come hang around his shoeshine stand right away as she often does in the morning when she arrives, and Andy misses her presence a little bit (especially with Kyle telling him the most boring stories, like, who cares your aunt lost custody of her dog, Kyle, really?). By noon, she still hasn't come and said hi and he's starting to wonder if  _she_ 's mad at him before he remembers that it's the other way around and she finally shows up anyway.

 

When he finds out that April put gum in Justin's coatpockets, he feels most of all relieved. Relieved that he wasn't wrong about April, she really is the coolest of the office, relieved that someone else gets him, relieved that she's still got his back. And he wishes he could have seen Justin finding out about the gum cause his face must have been priceless. He gives April three free shoeshines and a free purse shine to celebrate the end of her betrayment.


	6. Sweetums

 

She hasn't responded to Derek's texts today. Ever since yesterday after the move, she has no idea how to deal with him or Ben and she's been avoiding them. She's afraid of what she might say, of what she might let on. This crush on Andy is becoming a real problem and she's going to have to deal with it at some point, but she has no idea how this could end well.

She never really liked her boyfriend per se, more like she does not totally hate him. But Andy, Andy is something else. He's funny and kind and so authentic all the time, and he makes her happier than she ever thought she'd be when she took the internship. Just thinking about how Derek and Ben made fun of him is making her mad. They make fun of everyone, herself included, but there's something special, something  _innocent_  about Andy that makes her want to scratch their eyes out when they mock him.  _This is not right_ , she tells herself.

 

It's not like there is much for her to do. Andy is into Ann, who is beautiful and kind, who laughs and smiles and is basically everything April isn't. She can't change who she is, not for him, not for anyone, she won't. It still hurts. In other circumstances, she would love to hear Andy make fun of Mark, because she loves making fun of dumb people, but just the fact that Andy feels the need to be that way around him means that he's still jealous, that he still wants Ann. She longs for a day when she can just stop caring, stop loving Andy. 

 

Loving? That's not something she ever thought she'd feel toward anyone. Oh, sure, when her parents tell her they love her (they do it  _all the time_ , it's boring), she says "Me too", and on some deep hidden level, she probably loves her sister, but this kind of attachment, she's never felt that before. She's never wanted to spend time with someone that much, wanted to hear what he has to say even if it's stupid, wanted to go along all his crazy ideas.

 

If she let herself, her mind would go to some places she's not allowed in. She would think about spending time with Andy, asking him out and having him say yes, going on a date with him, kissing him, and more. It's never something she ever felt with Derek. Their relationship amounts to drunk making out, that one lousy attempt to have sex that was interrupted by Ben, thank god, and bashing people together. Doesn't she deserve better than that? Shouldn't she strive for the guy she wants, the guy who treats her well, who treats everyone well, the guy who lights up her day whenever she sees him? But he's also the guy who is in love with dumb Ann.

 

There is no possible future with Derek, that's obvious. She never even thought there was one initially. That was never why they got together. But there is no future with Andy either. In fact, she isn't even sure she can maintain their friendship as easily as before, not after openly rejecting her boyfriend, not after admitting to herself that she loves him. It's not just a crush, it's not just a phase, it's more, it's better. Better, because it's deeper and heartfelt and sincere, but in a way, it's heartbreaking and bound to get her to suffer, and that makes it a million times worse than a simple crush. 

 

Without thinking, she takes her phone and her thumbs type in the usual snarky message to let Derek know she's all right. Some day she'll break up with him and be truly alone. Some day she'll be brave enough for that.


	7. Galentine's Day

Andy never really danced with Ann when they were together. He never thought she wanted that. They didn't get out much and when they did, he would usually be on scene, so dancing wasn't an option. And she never asked. So in his mind, dancing and Ann don't really go together.

 

Which is why he's surprised when he sees her dance with Mark all night, and not the Ann-made-breakfast-pancakes surprised, more like Ann-is-dating-a-douchebag kind of surprised, the kind that takes him to the guts and twist them. But he pushes that down and sings on and on, all romantic songs, all lame songs that he never thought Ann would want to dance to. It doesn't really take his mind off, not really, but it gives him something to focus on.

 

April is listening to him sing, all smiles, and that helps too. He actually likes April a great deal. She's the best, really, super fun and creepy, which he finds cool. She's been coming at his shoeshine stand a lot the past few weeks. He really loves talking with her. She never has that look that Ann always does, the look that says he's dumb and what he says is stupid. So it's really super awesome that April comes more and more often. Not that shining shoes is boring, but he definitely needs the distraction between clients. Just like right now. So he sings, looks right at her instead of watching Ann. And she smiles even broader.

 

Later, when he's on a break, Ann comes to see him to chat and her talking to him like he's a normal person brings up many memories of concerts where she was there to support him (she didn't come to  _all_  of his concerts but still quite often and he always loved that). It feels warm and comfortable, and the sensation stays even when April reminds him that it's time to go back to singing.

 

She's asked for a song, and one that he kind of likes, for once, unlike all the other old boring songs he's sung tonight. Ann's back to dancing and singing  _The Way You Look Tonight_  puts his mind entirely on April. She actually does look lovely tonight. He doesn't know what she did with her hair but it's cute, a bit curly and all, and her dress is nice, too. All night, she's either been watching him sing or hanging out with her boyfriends and looking mildly bored, and he hopes that the song will make her happy.

 

April doesn't smile much, but when she does, Andy finds her really cool and pretty. He's definitely seen a lot of her recently and he hopes to see her even more. It's great for him to have a job, meet people, make friends. His life needs more April Ludgate, all in all. He keeps singing and she keeps smiling and for the rest of the night, his mind is entirely off Ann.


	8. Woman of the Year

She really thought it'd been it this time. She was totally convinced. He would get his own place and they would hang out even more, maybe he'd invite her to his appartment some day, they'd watch a movie together and get comfortable on the couch, and after some subtle cuddling (initiated by her) she would make the first move and boom, cat in the bag. She can't say she hasn't thought about that a lot. Ever since she broke up with Derek and Ben, she's stopped putting brakes on her thoughts about Andy and they can run pretty wild. It helps that Andy isn't really talking about Ann that much these days. April isn't so stupid as to think he's forgotten about her entirely, but the first day he doesn't say anything about Ann at all really fills her heart with a special kind of happiness. 

 

Today was a failure, though. There is no denying that. Andy chose to invest his money in the Snakehole Lounge to help Tom and to pass up on getting his own place. He chose to leave behind the possibility of living on his own, where April could come over or invite him at her place (preferably the former), to give up on any plans they might have had together. He chose to help his friend rather than have independence. And in some way, that makes everything between them so much better, and every possibility she lost irrelevant.

 

Her feelings for him make even more sense now. It's not just that Andy is nice and funny and  _stupid hot_  anymore. It's that he is the kindest soul she's ever met. How is he even real? When he told her what he'd done with his money, she could barely believe it, but as much as it shattered the fantasies she'd built up in her mind, it also gave her some new  _respect_  for him.

 

  
_Who_  gives all the money he probably owns in this world to a colleague he isn't that close to for some stupid reason? Who is that generous and kindhearted? This is a lot more than Andy just being a nice dude, it's him being selfless and just purely  _good_. And if she isn't totally addicted to that big guy with the biggest heart in the world, then there's no other word to describe what she's feeling for him now.


	9. The Possum

 

When April leaves him behind in the Parks Department to go on some sort of mission with Leslie (that's how he sees it, at least − her job sounds so exciting sometimes) instead of waiting for the pictures of him and the possum, he gets a feeling in his guts that something is wrong. April  _always_  accepts offers like this, she always seems to want to spend time with him. That's why he likes her so much. 

Well, that and the fact that she's super funny, she always comes up with crazy stuff, she never calls him stupid or dumb when he says things (Ann used to, all the time) and she's pretty. That's not weird, right? You  _can_  find your friends pretty, can't you? Well, he thinks she is, she's got nice hair (it looks like it's soft but he can't just touch her hair out of nowhere so he doesn't know for sure), her cheeks are cute and he likes it when she smiles. And around him, she smiles kind of a lot.Except for today. He doesn't really know what happened there. One minute they were chilling, he told April a joke and she laughed, the next, the reporter comes in, April leaves the room and then she's super cold to him when she comes back. And he doesn't know what he did, but he hates the feeling. Then the idea comes to him: it's probably something he did, right? She wasn't mad, then she was, so he must have done something dumb. But what?He picks up a sheet of paper and a pen from her desk (it doesn't seem like she uses them much) and writes down the title. _Things I Did that Might Have Made April Mad_ He scratches his head, bites his lip, and thinks of what happened just now. He writes and writes, and the list grows longer.

 

  * Biting my nails
  * Drinking coffee with four sugars
  * Sitting at the table in the Parks Department
  * Singing to the possum
  * Being mean to the possum
  * Talking to the reporter
  * Talking about Ann
  * Scrunching up my nose 
  * Flexing my super awesome muscles
  * Asking Leslie the time
  * Talking to Leslie



 

He writes on and on, even asks Ron for advice at some point (but Ron says he does not want to get involved), and before long, the list is two pages long and he still has no idea what it was that made her mad. What is he supposed to do, then? The only solution he finds is not to do any of these things ever again, because even if some of them were super nice (he will miss eating donuts with Tom or drinking some of Jerry's orange juice), they are all totally lame compared to being April's friend.


	10. Park Safety

Andy comes to the realization all at once, but once the thought is in his mind, he wonders for how long things have been this way. Maybe since he started looking forward to friends coming to his stand more than he did Ann. Maybe since he stopped thinking about Ann on any given day at any time. Maybe when he stopped feeling like a punch in the gut every time he saw her and Mark hanging out at City Hall. One thing is sur, though. As he walks out of the self defence lessons Ron insisted on giving them, it's absolutely obvious to him. 

He doesn't love Ann anymore.

He felt it during the class when he jabbed at Mark and it just didn't feel the same way it used to. It felt more like a habit than a real try to undermine him in Ann's eyes. And even at that, it's not like it ever worked before. 

 

He sees it all now, so clear and sure that he wonders how he even missed it. Ann and him will never get back together because they just don't belong together. He has no idea if she belongs to Mark, though. Mark is kinda boring and after three years with a rock star, she deserves better. But the truth is, she deserved better even then. 

  
He can't help but be kinda grossed out when he thinks about how he never did anything for her out of just kindness, with nothing in mind. Maybe because he'd never been down long enough to truly appreciate other people's gestures for him. But now that he's been in the pit, he gets it. Being nice to someone really makes their day. Every opportunity Leslie gave him, all the times he had fun chatting with people at the Parks Department who treat him like a friend, all the times April laughs at his jokes or gives him presents (aside from the awesome jersey that he still hasn't found an opportunity to wear, she loves to give him little things − one time, a picture of a dead deer eaten by wolves with the caption "if only this happened to Leslie, my job would be so much better", that was fun), all of that makes him feel just so happy deep down and all the way out that he needs someone to share that joy with.

But not Ann. Because when he thinks back on their time together, he knows that she never used to have fun with him the way he wanted, and he certainly didn't like the way she liked to have fun. She would come to his Mouse Rat concerts, but she never listened to the CDs or knew the lyrics. She would never play video games with him, even the fun ones with no blood (not that Ann is afraid of blood, actually, considering she's a nurse). He would sweep her off her feet and take her to bed, but she'd climb down and tell him she was watching Project Runway. He would make jokes and she would snort at him, but not laugh with him. He would offer piggyback rides and she would say she doesn't need a piggyback ride inside the house.

Andy has no idea how he could be so blind, and how he could stop loving her without even noticing it. Is he that bad at figuring out his own feelings? One thing is sure, though. After he's picked up a veggie muffin for April (she's got super weird tastes sometimes, but she's totally cool so he'll forgive her that), shined a few shoes and sold three packs of gum-batteries (a package deal he's launched last week, his idea, so far very successful: it seems will buy anything when they really want gum and don't wanna go out of City Hall for it), Ann comes to the shoeshine stand to check up on him and he has no romantic feelings for her whatsoever. At all. He knows that now. He's not some idiot who knows nothing about who he does or does not love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback.


	11. Summer Catalogue

Andy is the one who suggests they swap sweaters. The idea sound a bit dumb to her, but she likes dumb, and he sounds so excited when he whispers into her ear so Leslie won't hear that she feels she can't really say no.

"Come on, it'll be fun! I'm sure Leslie won't even notice!"

"Dude, there's no way she won't notice..." but then Andy takes his sweater off and April's breath gets caught in her throat. "All right, let's do this."

Andy's sweater is big and still warm from him wearing it, it's a bit itchy and it feels perfect. Her mind wanders to forbidden places, where she pictures herself wearing this sweater, and nothing else,  _after,_  when she gets out of bed for some reason, or Andy giving her the sweater when she's cold after their first date, or her pulling it off him when their kisses become too fiery and she needs to feel his skin under her palms  _right now_. For a second, she can just  _feel_  it, feel his eyes and his hands and his lips on her, but then Andy, the real Andy outside of her own mind, grabs her shoulder and she's shaken out of her thoughts.

"April, you gotta give me yours. It's gonna be awesome!"

And it  _is_  awesome. Andy's belly is showing, of course − her sweater is far too small for him and it bunched up his t-shirt on his chest − and it's both adorable  _and_  hot. If she didn't already have a huge crush on him because he's kind and amazing and he makes her laugh, she might get one just now for how hot he is also. She's starting to draw up plans to convince him of wearing less baggy clothes more often when Leslie turns around. 

She does notice. Immediately. Andy fucking  _giggles_  when they get caught and that makes her laugh too. In fact, everything about him makes her want to laugh. Reluctantly, she takes off Andy's sweater, that smelled a little bit like him, sweat and all, and felt so amazing, and gets back her own − a little stretched by giant Andy. Hopefully, other great things will happen and she'll get another opportunity to wear it some other time. One thing is sure, they have a great day ahead of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback.


	12. 94 Meetings

Sometimes, Andy truly believes that he is a complete idiot. There's being oblivious, and then there is not noticing your own crush on your boss's assistant. And not even a nice little comfortable crush. A  _big_  overwhelming crush that makes more and more sense the more he thinks about it. And he didn't even realize it till last week. Till he realized he could do nothing about it.

 

When he asked April to grab a drink with him, he thought they'd be going as friends. They are friends. That part isn't creepy. He can be friends with whoever. What's weird is how heartbroken he felt when the bouncer didn't let her in, when he realized she was  _really_  young. Like, young enough that she can't even go in a bar. That is  _super_  young. What if he invites her to a Mouse Rat gig? How can she be there backstage to support him and tell him he's the greatest lead singer ever if she's twenty? Like Ann used to…

 

And then he saw it. It struck him like a truck on a highway, hard and in your face. How he thought about April in a girlfriend kind of way, more than a friend, more than a pal. Like, romantic. And how much of a creep that makes him if she's  _twenty_. 

 

April doesn't know. Even the day after the picnic, she still came to his shoeshine stand, brought him coffee, like she always does. She was a bit awkward, a bit sad − she really looked like she wanted him to go to that other bar with her − but nothing gives away that she thinks he's a creepy old guy who wants to kiss her and hug her and maybe make out at the shoeshine stand.  _What is this thought,_  he tells himself,  _stop thinking about that, you weirdo. She's twenty._  


 

He thinks Leslie knows. A few days later, she gave him a copy of the summer catalog, with a selfie of him and April that he took that day. She had a smile and told him "You kids look great together", so that means something, probably? But if she knows, she's done nothing about it and hasn't filed on him being a pervert yet, so that's good. 

 

So now, Andy is trying to lay it low. Maybe not come to the Parks and Recreation Department that much. If he does, he'll be super nice to April, and if someone finds out, he'll be labeled a total creep. It  _sucks_  that she's young, even though when he talks to her, he doesn't really feel like he's that much older. He feels like they're just two friends hanging out and getting on really really well. Even though he's older. But that's not something he can do now, not really, not when he thinks of her as someone he really likes. 

 

So when she comes and asks him to help her in the Parks Department, he tries to keep it absolutely cool and just say "Sure, yeah" instead of the enthusiasm he would have shown otherwise. Because really, 94 meetings in just one day? That's awesome. That means something like 400 just for him in one day, and that's so much better than shining shoes, because he can just talk to people, and help them, and maybe take his mind off April. 

 

It doesn't really work, because he can see her from across the department, in Leslie's office, and she has that cute yellow cardigan he likes, but at least his day is much more fun than the usual shoeshining day of labor. Up until the moment Ron gets a late afternoon shoeshine like he sometimes does and tells him April quit. And as Andy convinces him to go find her again, he realizes that he does not, in fact, want to spend less time with April. He does not, in fact, want to stop being her friend because of his feelings. He wants her. She's perfect for him. There's no one else in the job who is better for him. 

 

What do you do when you like someone and you can't express that without feeling like a scumbag, though? You keep it in. You stay friendly, and just that. Friends. He can't keep ignoring her forever, he just can't. He likes her too much. More than he even knew. But he  _can_ not be an ass and just not creep on twenty year-olds. 

 

The next day, April is back at the Department like every days and Andy almost rushes into Ron's office to hug him for managing to bring her back, but holds himself. He just gives him a free shoeshine and April a big smile when she walks past his stand, but she doesn't stop by today. Maybe he hurt her feelings. He kinda ignored her for a few days. There'll be time to make up for that, because he's heard that her birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, and he's starting to believe that he wouldn't be nearly as asshole-ish if he liked a twenty-one year-old. That's like, basically an adult. Just like he's an adult. That's not creepy. He looks at her from across the yard and starts humming − a tune naturally comes and he knows what kind of birthday present he might get her. A very nice song with her pretty smile woven into the lyrics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback. You don't need an AO3 account to leave kudos or post a comment.


	13. Telethon

It's really funny how you never notice something, but then you do, and you notice a billion other things around it. And not funny like when Jerry farted that time Andy was shining his shoes. More like funny like the milk he left out of Burly's fridge smells funny. 

 

It starts with a cup of coffee. He's hanging by the Parks Department and April brings him a nice hot cup of coffee. He says thank you, like he should, but then, he looks across the yard and sees Ann lean over Mark's shoulder and hand him a cup of coffee, with a kiss on the cheek and a hand mussing his hair. He wishes he'd had the kiss and the hand as well.

 

There's also the fact that April used to come by every day to the shoeshine stand. That has to mean something. Or maybe it's just what friends do, but he's got friends, plenty in fact, and he is quite positive that none of them come for a shine nearly as frequently as April. Even now, even with the way he was cold to her for a while, she still comes around, buys all her gum from his stand (and she chews a lot of gum, so he gives her the packs for free most of the time because he wouldn't want her to get broke) and even though she doesn't stay and chat as she did before, it's still  _something_.

 

Now, Andy isn't completely stupid. Not 100%. Sometimes he picks up on cues. And the moment they become completely obvious is at the telethon. When Leslie invited him to play with Mouse Rat, he accepted immediately, because he owes Leslie his life. Even if the concert was actually supposed to happen very early in the morning, so early it's actually more like late at night.

 

April spends  _the whole night_  hanging out with him and the band in the back room. And Andy is reminded that Ann used to do exactly that before his big concerts. She would talk to him, support him, say Mouse Rat was great, and it would make him feel so good, but not nearly as good as the realization that's coming to him this time, with April. She  _likes_  him. 

 

It makes perfect sense, it just does. She treats him like a guy she'd like. And she's single. And still  _twenty_ , dammit.

 

But she likes him. He notices now, the way she smiles at him when he tells her about the songs he's going to sing, when he shows her his guitar and that scratch it got last year when he was playing in the garden and a raccoon clutched at it, when he asks her if she has any song she'd like to hear. He tries to keep it cool, to be composed, but on the inside, he's snuggling puppies and a whole marching band is telling him he's awesome, because April likes him.

 

Sadly, she's also kind of mad at him ever since that time he went back home instead of grabbing a drink with her. One minute she'll be all smiles and cute (and he is so  _sure_  it's because she likes him), but the next, she'll catch herself and be snarky. He tries to banter back, make it a back and forth, but that doesn't seem to lead anywhere, and he still catches her staring at him when he sings, in the corner of his eye. 

 

The last evidence comes almost at the end of their shift. It's 5 am and she tells a funny guy to come see her at the Telethon. That, Andy doesn't really like, not at all, but then the guy actually shows up and April's reaction tells it all. She has no desire to see this guy whatsoever. So Andy does the right thing and leads him away where he can't bother her. 

 

There's only one conclusion to take from this: April was trying to make him jealous. She really did! When he comes back, after making sure Sewage Joe won't bother her again, she's hiding the biggest smile. He loves it when she does that. It's as if she wanted to be mean and snarky, but her lips are betraying her and she's still smiling. It looks adorable. She looks adorable. And throughout the rest of the night (thank god their shift is ending soon, though, because Andy is starting to get sleepy), she eyes him from time to time and hides that same smile every time. 

 

When Mouse Rat is about to leave, she grabs Andy's arm from behind, her eyes not meeting his. 

 

"Thank you," she grumbles, so low he could have dreamed it, but the look on her face says it all. 

 

"No worries," he smiles, "I'll, erm, I'll get ride of the weirdos any time you want."

 

She purses her lip in that restrained way of her, like she's about to blurt out something but really doesn't want to, so instead she nods and walks away to her car. Andy watches her go, waves at her when she passes him in the car, and she even gives him a smile at that. And he's completely smitten. How do they do that, all the nice and pretty people? She just smiles, and he feels like he's been hit in the head. 

 

It seems that driving away Sewage Joe was the right thing to do, because just like that, April stops being mad at him. She comes back to the stand every single day, and not in her silent, awkward way but like she used to, smiling and joking and talking. Every day, the urge to hug her and kiss her gets stronger, and it still feels weird, but a lot less now that Andy knows she likes him back. And her birthday is coming up next week anyways, so after that, everything will be perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you read this and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment to tell me what you liked :) It really means the world to get feedback. You don't need an AO3 account to leave kudos or post a comment.


End file.
